The Athkatlan Dove's Guild

The House of Doves is the Athkatlan prostitutes' guild. They are organized on the principle of entertainment, of all kinds. Guildhouses have beautiful gardens, many salons, and much sought after chefs, who are often trained in druidic magic or alchemy. These houses provide meeting places and entertainment for individuals and small groups, as well as sexual pleasures of all kinds. The guild has close associations with the churches of Ilmater, Milil and Sune, and enjoys the patronage of many of the great houses. Guildmembers are guaranteed healthy, and confidentiality of customers is assured. Hosting an event at one of the guildhouses is a social coup, since most available dates are booked a year or more in advance and waiting lists for even small parties are long.

Membership is open to anyone of either sex, though slaves cannot progress above the second tier, and is earned by progressing through three levels (walker, roomer, and courtesan), the last of which is divided into areas of specialization such as theater, musician, dance, and conversation. Members must begin as 'walkers', the lowest rung of the guild; they work the walk-in houses, serving customers and learning the arts of providing pleasure under the tutelage of higher ranking guild members. They need only work as a walker for one full Ride to gain membership, noted by a half-inch tattoo of a blue and gold dove placed discreetly but noticeably, but even this is too much for some. For an exorbitant fee, many of these basic classes are also available to non-guildmembers, a service provided primarily to slaves of the great houses and a few interested nobles, who attend the classes in disguise or arrange for private tutors.

Once guildmembers are judged proficient in the basics, they are promoted to 'roomers', those who work in the upstairs rooms, taking only limited customers by appointment; they are encouraged to spend part of their time learning how to read a customer's wants, creating the appropriate mood in a room, and taking classes in one or more of the specialization areas, preparatory to becoming courtesans. Since courtesan positions are limited in number and the requirements are strict, competition for the status is fierce and sometimes bitter.

Because of the rivalry, courtesans are known only by a working name or title related to their specialty, and appear in public masked to protect them from jealous rivals, both within and outside the guild. They specialize in entertaining mentally as well as physically, providing witty conversation, music, or recitation of plays or poetry as well as sexual favors and massage; they are considered consumate entertainers. There are two courtesans of each sex in each of the specialties, so that a new courtesan becomes one of four designated by an element (fire, air, water, or earth) that reflects their personality. The specialties include Recitation, Poetry, Music, Dance, Conversation, Massage, and Pleasure, and the courtesans are known as Histrions, Lyrists, Melodies, Dancers, Orators, Masseurs, and Charms, respectively. They are the Dove equivalent to Guildmasters, and may retire after five years if they choose, and most, once retired, go on to teach within the guild.

The Guild Council, known as the Bevy, is made up of one each of the courtesan specialties chosen from the retired Courtesans by the Guildmasters of each specialty. Elements cannot follow one another on the Bevy (in other words, a Fire Dancer cannot succeed a Fire Dancer, but could succeed an Earth Dancer), but there are otherwise no restrictions on the makeup of the Bevy.

The relationship of the Doves to the other Athkatlan guilds is carefully cordial for the most part, since the Doves consider their position within Athkatla somewhat precarious and the Bevy's stance has historically been to gather information where they can and use it only rarely and very discreetly to keep the guild on the edge of the complex politics of the huge city. They have a very close working relationship with the Bardic Guild, and with the Jewelers and Tailors Guilds, who will often arrange shows of new lines using Courtesans as models. Two of the biggest shows are held on Greengrass and the Winter Solstice, when the two guilds present their new creations for fall and spring, respectively. The shows are huge parties held at the Aviary, the main guildhouse of the Doves, and invitations are coveted, since this is the first, and in some cases only, chance for upper crust Athkatlans to see and place orders for the first fashions of the new season.

Their relationship to the Slavers' Guild was strained several years ago. A retired Courtesan and former member of the Bevy was supposedly lost when his caravan was attacked while traveling through Tethyr; he later showed up in Athkatla as the property of a high-ranking Blue Stripe Slaver. When the Bevy offered a high 'reward' to remand his debt to the guild, in thanks for rescuing him from the bandits who had captured his group, they were refused out of hand. Protests to the High Council were refused on the grounds that the purchase was legal and made outside of their jurisdiction. The Doves, in protest, refused admittance to all members of the Slavers Guild and several guilds associated with the Council members, while courting openly and lavishly members of rival guilds and Houses. Several weeks of this pushed the Slavers to send a formal notice to the Bevy with the remantion price for the Courtesan, which was promptly, and courteously, paid. Admittance of the banned guilds was reinstated as soon as the Courtesan was returned, and the matter apparently was forgotten. But the resentment, on both sides, lingers still, and the Bevy carefully watches its position with the guilds and Houses to prevent any further endangerment of its people. They cannot and will not compromise their members by openly warring with another guild, and they use their network of information to secure their position with all the guilds and Houses in a sometimes painful strict neutrality.